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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Hillary Clinton releases Spanish-language ad and video featuring Bill
Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, released a Spanish language radio ad on Wednesday that will air in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Sergio Bendixen, a veteran pollster who is advising the Clinton campaign, said that the ad targets Iowa’s 20,000 Hispanic registered Democrats and New Hampshire’s 5,000 Hispanic registered Democrats as well as the independents in that state that can participate in the primary.
The spot, which features some Mariachi music, says that Latinos have a high number of uninsured children and are losing their homes because of the mortgage housing crisis.
It says Hillary Clinton will solve these problems and that “like Bill Clinton, she will support economic policies that will create millions of jobs.”
The campaign also released a Spanish-language video with a similar message. It features Bill Clinton speaking in English about his wife, with Spanish subtitles.
“She will never forget the priorities of middle class and working class Americans,” Bill Clinton says.
Neither the radio ad or the video mention immigration.
Bendixen said that Hillary Clinton’s support for “comprehensive immigration reform” is well known and that such a complex issue is difficult to put into a short advertisement.
To view the video, click here.
To listen to the radio ad, click here.
Bush’s latest pardon list does not include border agents Compean and Ramos
The White House released a new list of presidential pardons and commutations this week which did not include two former Border Patrol agents whose case has become a cause celebre among conservatives and groups that advocate tougher border controls
The agents — Jose Alonso Compean and Ignacio Ramos — are serving 12 and 11 years in prison for shooting a Mexican drug dealer and trying to cover it up.
Lawmakers who support the agents were upset that Compean and Ramos were not on the pardon list. They say the agents were wrongly convicted for protecting the United States against criminal intruders.
Rep., Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said that President Bush’s list of pardons includes “eight drug dealers” but not the “unjustly imprisoned Border Patrol agents.”
Members of Congress — including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas — have asked President Bush to pardon the agents or commute their sentences. Last week, a bi-partisan group of House members introduced a resolution asking for the immediate commutation of Compean and Ramos.
The prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of the Western District of Texas, has staunchly defended the case.
At a press conference, Rohrabacher said: “The President’s heartless ignoring of the fundamental miscarriage of justice in the case of agents Ramos and Compean…is a snub to the families and a slap in the face to millions of Americans who have pleaded with the president to show some mercy for Ramos and Compean… Instead he turns around and shows mercy to drug dealers and other criminals and leaves Ramos and Compean to suffer in solitary confinement.”
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino was asked about the agents on Wednesday. This is what she said: “Well, there’s processes in place for pardons, and those two individuals, if they want to seek a pardon, they can go through the process, as well.”
The president granted 29 pardons and 1 commutation this week. Since the beginning of his administration, he has granted 142 pardons and 5 commutations, according to the White House.
Romney hits Thompson, Giuliani and Huckabee on immigration
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is trying to hold off a challenge in Iowa from Mike Huckabee with criticism of the former Arkansas governor’s record on immigration, is using the same tactic in South Carolina, with one major difference.
Instead of targeting Huckabee alone, as he is doing in Iowa, Romney is taking aim in South Carolina at former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson as well as Huckabee.
A new mailer sent by the Romney campaign in South Carolina this week has photos of Huckabee, Giuliani and Thompson under the headline: “Compare the records on illegal immigration.”
The mailer’s caption for Huckabee reads “Special Benefits for Illegals; for Giuliani, “A Sanctuary City”; and for Thompson, “A Do Nothing Record.”
Romney, on the other hand, offers a “record of results” and provides “strong leadership on illegal immigration,” the mailer asserts.
The mailer makes no mention of Arizona Sen. John McCain, who was the key Republican sponsor of a broad immigration bill earlier this year that would have given a path to citizenship to many illegal immigrants and created a temporary worker program.
In the latest Mason-Dixon poll, which was released this week, McCain is running a distant fifth in the Republican presidential field with 10 percent. The leader in the poll was Huckabee (20 percent), followed by Giuliani (17 percent), Romney (15 percent), and Thompson (14 percent).
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Romney: immigration ad not negative
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said on Wednesday that his recent ad about rival Mike Huckabee’s immigration record is not negative.
“It’s not negative. It’s accurate. It’s an ad that shows the differences on a very important topic. And actually, if you agree with Mike Huckabee’s position, it’s a positive ad for him. If you agree with my position, it’s a positive ad for me,” Romney said, on NBC’s “Today” show.
The advertisement, which started airing this week, compares the two former governors on the issue, saying that Romney “stood up and vetoed a bill to give in-state tuition for illegal aliens” while Huckabee supported such a measure. It also says that Hucakbee “even supported tax-payer funded scholarships for illegal aliens.”
Romney said in the interview with Matt Lauer that the advertisement was not an attack on Huckabee’s faith or his character but a “contrast ad” that highlighted two different positions on an important issue.
“I’m perfectly comfortable with people, if they accurately portray each other’s issues, describing those differences,” Romney said.
In response to the advertisement, the Huckabee campaign said it was disappointed that Romney “favors smearing his fellow Republicans as his primary campaign strategy.”
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